Nestable and storable-and-nestable tray-shaped or box-shaped open-top containers are widely used in agriculture, food processing, commerce and in industry for a variety of purposes. For example, in manufacturing trays they may be used for the transport of finished pieces, semi-finished pieces or manufacturing intermediates between stations in a manufacturing plant, e.g. by conveyor systems, by truck, or even by hand.
In such plants, moreover, the containers can be used for temporary storage of the products or for the storage of machine parts or the like.
The containers are widely used in commerce for the storage, display, and transportation of parts and products and in assembly areas for units which are to be combined with others in the fabrication of larger manufactured pieces.
Regardless of the intended use of such containers, it is desirable to be able to identify the container or the contents thereof and means have been provided which can receive an identifying card or the like of a size sufficient to enable it to be read with ease.
The card may be preprinted with identifying indicia, can carry a picture or even a sample of the contents, can have space for hand notation or can merely identify by color or other means a routing source or destination.
Generally speaking the upper portions or rim of the container will always be exposed, i.e. will be visible even in the nested condition of the container and generally would be an ideal region for identifying indicia. When, however, such containers are fabricated by injection molding, for example, from synthetic resins, the upper portion of the container generally must be provided with reinforcing or stiffening ribs which precludes the availability of a surface of sufficient size for receiving indicia cards.
The lower portions of the container, however, can have walls of a sufficient size and can receive labels or other identifying material. Experience has shown, however, that when indicia are provided on these surfaces, there is a rapid deterioration of the label because the outer surface of the lower portion of an upper container usually tightly contacts the inner surface of the lower container when the containers are nested, thereby rubbing against any indicia.
When projections are provided to protect the indicia they limit the depth of nesting of the two containers and are disadvantageous on this score.
Furthermore projections from the lower surfaces of the container tend to be very fragile and are easily broken off. Thus, while it is desirable to provide sample identifying cards or labels upon such containers, it has been found to be difficult heretofore or inconvenient, especially if the label is to have a long life.
It has also frequently been found to be advantageous to so label and identify the container that their indicia will be visible in a stacked condition of the container but invisible in a nested condition thereof. This avoids confusion in searching for particular materials.